The Reckoning: Quantum Prophecy Book 3 (9 page)

“They’re saying that some countries are testing every kid over the age of twelve to see if they have superhuman powers. It’s probably not true, but…”

“But it might be?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s not so bad, Brian.”

“Well, I heard that there was a girl in Belgium who was pretty average in school but then on one exam she scored top marks, so they took her away and gave her all sort of tests to check whether she was reading the teacher’s mind or something. Turned out that she only did so well on the exam because she’d cheated. So then she got expelled and her family had to move to another town.”

“I don’t know, Brian…. That sounds like someone made that story up.”

“Maybe. But the kid who died, that was real.”

Colin felt his skin begin to crawl. “What was that?”

“How could you not have heard about that? It was on the news a couple of weeks ago. In Newcastle. He tried to prove to his mates that he had superspeed by standing in front of a train. Took the police three days to find all the bits.”

“Oh God. That’s…”

“There’ve been others. Jumping out of windows and breaking their legs seems to be the most common one. There was a girl who thought she had the powers of a cat and climbed up this really high tree and couldn’t get down. They had to get the
fire brigade to rescue her. And there was a little kid who nearly drowned seeing whether he could breathe underwater.”

Colin felt a trickle of sweat running down his neck. “The boy who was hit by the train. If I hadn’t—”

“Don’t go blaming yourself for that, Col. You’re not responsible for other people’s stupidity. Besides, it was Danny he was trying to copy, not you.”

That’s not the point,
Colin thought. “Listen, Brian, I’ve really got to go, OK? But I’ll talk to you again.”

“Soon?”

“I don’t know. When I can. Take care, all right? And tell your folks and Susie that I said hello.”

“Will do. See you.”

“I hope so.”

Colin ended the call and stared at the phone for a few seconds.
Things are getting crazy out there. I should…
He paused.
I should what? Go back to Sakkara and end up working for the American government?

He glanced at the TV screen to see a photograph of Reginald Kinsella.

He picked up the remote control and turned up the sound.

The newsreader was saying, “…who have all, until recently, appeared to be fully supportive of the superhuman program in the United States. But the recent events in Central America, and other attacks on Trutopian communities, have led many of the governments to call on the United Nations to outlaw the use of superhuman operatives outside U.S. soil. These calls have been backed by the Trutopian leader Reginald Kinsella.”

Colin muted the TV again and picked up his phone. He selected Harriet’s number and seconds later the call was answered.

“Hey, how are you doing, Colin?” the woman asked. “Need anything? I’m staying across town, but if you want I can be there in ten minutes.”

“No, I’m fine, thanks. It’s just that Mr. Kinsella said something about going back to America tomorrow.”

“That’s right.”

“Can you ask him…Well, I know he’s busy and everything, but…Maybe you can ask him to stay here for a few more days?”

I
N
S
AKKARA
, W
ARREN
W
AGNER OPENED
the door to his quarters to find the blinds closed and his wife lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

“So how are you doing?”

Caroline smiled. “Not so bad. I’m mostly over it, I think. It wasn’t nearly this bad last time.”

“Yeah, but you’re getting on a bit now.”

“
You’re
the one with all the gray hairs!”

Warren sat on the edge of the bed and took hold of his wife’s hand. “You’ve been stressing yourself about Colin, that’s all. Just lie still and take long, slow deep breaths.” Then his smile faded and he found that his mouth had suddenly gone dry. “We’re going to have to leave here. We can’t keep putting it off forever. I mean, we’ve probably only got a couple more weeks before…”

Caroline squeezed his hand. “I don’t want to be here any more than you do, but…It’s too much of a risk to leave. This is the safest place for us. What if someone like Victor Cross finds out? And what about Colin? We need to be somewhere he can find us if he needs us.”

Warren looked down at the floor. “He doesn’t need us. He can look after himself.” He looked back and smiled. “With the abilities he has, he wouldn’t have any problem tracking us down no matter where we are.”

“There’s Mina too. Most of them seem to have forgotten
about her. Apart from Renata, I’m the only one who goes to visit her every day.”

“Caroline,” Warren said, a hard tone in his voice. “We can
not
stay here, and there’s no way we can bring Mina with us. We have to put our own family first.”

With a sharp hiss, the door slid open and they looked up to see General Piers entering the room.

Caroline looked at him with disgust. “Come in, why don’t you?” She turned to Warren. “We have
got
to start locking that door.”

“What do you want, General?” Warren asked.

“A few minutes ago your son made a phone call to his friend Brian McDonald. He stayed on the line long enough for us to trace the call to a cell network in northeast Romania. We’re having trouble getting the exact location, but it’s still the best lead we have.”

“Did you record the call? How does he sound?”

“Yes, we recorded it. He sounds good.” The old man gave them a warm smile. “There’s no guarantee that Colin will come back, but at least we know he’s alive and well.”

Warren got to his feet. “Let’s hear it.”

“They’re making a copy for you now,” Piers said. “I’ve put Max Dalton on the case. The cell phone networks are different in eastern Europe, but Max is pretty certain that he can track down the number Colin called from. Then you can phone him yourself. After
we’ve
established contact with him, of course.”

Warren nodded. “OK. That’s good. Yeah, we can wait a bit longer.”

The general nodded, then left the room, closing the door behind him.

Warren sat down on the bed, wrapped his arms around his wife and hugged her close. “When we talk to him, we’ll tell him everything, OK? When he realizes how much we’re going to need his help, he’ll come back. I know he will.”

“No, we can’t. The general’s people will be listening in to the phone call. As soon as
they
know, they’ll make sure that we never leave.”

Warren suddenly sat back, and grinned. “Hey, was that a kick?”

Caroline took Warren’s hand and gently placed it on her stomach. “I think it was!”

Stephanie Cord knocked on the classroom door and opened it.

The teacher looked up from his book. “Yes, Ms. van Piet?”

“Sorry, Mr. Andrews. There’s an important phone call for Grant Paramjeet.”

The teacher sighed. “Can’t it wait? We’re in the middle of differential equations here.”

Stephanie shrugged.

“All right. Paramjeet, get back here as quick as you can.”

A tall, strong-looking boy with a bruised left cheek stood up, his chair scraping on the wooden floor. He followed Stephanie out into the hallway, closing the door behind him. He gestured down the corridor. “In the office, yeah?”

“No,” Stephanie said. “Follow me.”

With Paramjeet obediently strolling behind her, Stephanie
made her way along the dark corridors and out through the side entrance to the deserted basketball court.

The young man looked around. “I don’t get it.”

“Thank you for trying to save my life.”

“How did you…? I mean, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You should have picked a better disguise, Grant. Most boys only have a couple of pairs of shoes. I recognized yours when I saw you in the corridor this morning…You
idiot
! You could have been killed. What on Earth were you thinking?”

“I saw you were in trouble…”

“You’re not exactly the sharpest tool in the box, are you?”

Paramjeet took a step back, and folded his arms. “There’s no need for that. I do OK.” He looked Stephanie up and down. “So…Are you, you know…?”

“A superhuman? No.”

“But how did you do that? Those guys were twice your size, and there were three of them! Even
I
was finding it tough.”

Stephanie stared at him. “Finding it tough? God, you really
are
an idiot. If I hadn’t been there, we’d all have a day off school to attend your funeral.”

“I was holding my own. I knew what I was doing.”

“No you didn’t. You don’t know the first thing about being a superhero. Your intentions are good, but your methods are lousy. Where was your backup? Did you have an escape route? Did you even know who you were fighting?”

“Well…”

“How did you know that they didn’t have guns?”

Paramjeet blurted, “I thought there was only one of them!”

“You’re not exactly helping your case.”

They glowered at each other.

“Look,” Stephanie said. “What made you think that you could cut it as a superhero?”

“I have lots of skills! I was the best on the javelin team in elementary school. I know sign language and I can lip-read—my sister is hearing-impaired so I learned the same time she did. I can fight—”

“Not in
my
opinion.”

He ignored that. “The New Heroes aren’t doing anything to help ordinary people.
Someone
has to do it. Maybe I don’t have any powers, but…Paragon wasn’t a superhuman either, and he was one of the best.”

“I know that,” Stephanie said.

“He was just an ordinary man who knew that he could make a difference. He always knew that one day he might die, but that didn’t stop him. And it won’t stop me either. This country needs heroes, and if no one else is going to do the job, then
I
will! No one knows how Paragon died, but I’m betting that he was doing the right thing when it happened. So you can say what you want, but I think he’d be proud of what I’m doing.” He jabbed his finger in Stephanie’s direction. “And
you
…If you won’t help me, then you just better make sure you stay out of my way. Because if you try to stop me—”

Stephanie grabbed his finger and twisted it.

Paramjeet gasped in pain and dropped to his knees.

“You were saying?”

“Oh God! Let go, let go!”

“If you had any brains at all, you wouldn’t threaten me.” She let go, and stepped back.

Paramjeet got to his feet, rubbing his hand. “You’re fast.” He looked into her eyes for a moment. “I thought I was fast, but you’re a lot faster. So tell me the truth, Erica…Are you a superhuman? You are, aren’t you?”

“No.”

“Sure? Maybe you are but you don’t know.”

“I’m not. And neither are you. You’ve got to stop trying to be a hero, Grant. Heroes get themselves and other people killed.”

“So I should just sit back and do nothing? The gangs own this town now and no one is standing up to them. I’m not going to stop.”

“I’m pretty sure you’ll stop when they kill you.”

A grin slowly spread across Grant’s face. “Not if I have you watching my back. That’s what we should do—work together. And you can train me, teach me how to do what you did today. I know this town inside out. I know where they all hang out. All the muggers, pushers, dealers, gang-lords…” His voice was getting louder now, more excited. “We’ll take them all on, one by one. You and me, we’ll show them that the ordinary people are not going to sit back and let them destroy our lives and poison our town! Before long it’ll be
them
living in fear, not us. And we’ll call ourselves the, uh, the…”

“The Two Dead Kids?” Stephanie suggested.

Grant’s smile instantly faded. “But—”

“Get a grip. The New Heroes can do it because they’re superhuman. We’re not.”

“But we have to do
something
. Erica, if you don’t want to work
with me, then you can train me. Give me a better chance of making it out there. You’ll do that at least, won’t you?”

Stephanie regarded him for a moment. “No.”

That evening, on the roof of Sakkara, Renata, Danny and Razor sat in their favorite spot, the western side of the low wall that skirted the roof.

Razor peered down over the edge, looking at the pyramid-shaped building’s sloping sides. “I need a day off.”

“Yeah, that’ll happen,” Renata said.

“I’m serious. I’ve been working on the armor at least fourteen hours a day, every day, since I got here.”

“And you’ve
still
not finished it,” Danny said, grinning.

“Very funny. I’d be a lot further along if I hadn’t wasted ages working on that mechanical arm of yours. I still can’t believe it—all the trouble we had designing and building it, and you didn’t even thank us. You never even
looked
at it.”

Renata said, quietly, “Razor. Stop.”

“What?”

“Just don’t talk about the arm.”

Razor looked from Renata to Danny, and back. “I…OK. Right.” He paused for a moment. “Why?”

Danny stared out to the west, where the sun was setting over Topeka. For a few seconds, he was silent, then he said, “Nearly fifteen years ago, Quantum had a vision of the future. He saw me leading the world’s superhumans in a huge battle against the ordinary people. He said that billions of people were going to die.”

“I know about that,” Razor said. “But—”

“Last October, in the desert in California,
I
had a vision.”

Razor’s mouth dropped open. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. I saw myself with some other kids—maybe thirty or forty of them. We were running from a whole squadron of soldiers. I don’t know if I saw the same future that Quantum did, but in my vision, my right arm was gone. Replaced by something mechanical.”

“God…But couldn’t that have been just the trauma of losing your arm? I mean, I still see you trying to reach for things with it, and then having to switch to your left.”

“I had the vision
before
I lost my arm.”

“You should have said. If we’d known, we’d never have built the thing. So you’re thinking that if you never take the mechanical arm, then that future won’t ever come to pass? There won’t be a war.”